Jupiter's cyclones revealed in stunning infrared video

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System.

NASA's new 3D infrared model of Jupiter's north pole reveals its violent cyclone clusters in great detail. It also sheds light on the planet's mysterious magnetic field, which researchers now say is "unlike anything previously imagined."

In the video, the yellow areas are warmer and deeper inside Jupiter's atmosphere, while the darker parts are colder and higher up in the atmosphere. In this animation, the maximum temperature difference is of about 70 degrees Celsius. The data for the animation was collected during Juno's fourth pass over the planet.

"Before Juno, we could only guess what Jupiter's poles would look like. Now, with Juno flying over the poles at a close distance it permits the collection of infrared imagery on Jupiter's polar weather patterns and its massive cyclones in unprecedented spatial resolution," Alberto Adriani, Juno co-investigator from the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Rome, said in a statement